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Yahoo has announced a deal to buy TV-sharing start-up company IntoNow as part of its plans to increase its social media presence.

The financial terms of the deal, including price, were not disclosed.

IntoNow’s software allows users to identify TV shows and share them with friends using mobile internet.

Amid falling revenue and profits, Yahoo is looking to expand into the mobile internet market, and to increase video advertising on the site.

"Relying on social channels as a means for discovering content – whether it’s on a PC, mobile device, or TV – is rapidly on the rise," said Bill Shaughnessy at Yahoo.

"IntoNow’s technology combines the ability to check-in to what a consumer is watching, engage in conversations, and find related content."

The application is integrated with Facebook, Twitter, iTunes and Netflix.

Launched in January this year, California-based IntoNow is led by Adam Cahan, a former executive at Google and Viacom’s MTV.

Last week, Yahoo reported profits of $223m (£137m) for the first three months of 2011, down from $310m last year.

However, the figure was better than analysts had expected.

Tepco workers remotely operate heavy machinery at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

(Credit: Tepco)

TOKYO–Robots and remote-controlled heavy machinery finally got to work at the crisis-hit Fukushima nuclear plant in an effort to minimize human exposure to radiation as Japan raised the severity of the disaster from 5 to 7, putting it on par with the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe.

A month after the 9.0-magnitude March 11 earthquake, operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) deployed three remote-controlled excavators equipped with cameras to clear radioactive debris around the unit 3 reactor, according to a Tepco spokeswoman.

The unmanned machinery was donated by Shimizu and Kajima corporations.

(Credit: TEPCO)

The excavators were donated by two Japanese construction companies. Remote-operated power loaders sent to Japan by Qinetiq North America are still being evaluated before deployment to the plant.

Meanwhile, Tepco launched a Honeywell T-Hawk micro air vehicle to survey the plant from above. As seen in the video below, the MAV recorded footage of the reactors and turbine structures from about 500 feet up, showing extensive damage to the buildings from the tsunami and hydrogen blasts.

Tepco has also used two of Qinetiq’s portable Talon robots–often used for ordnance disposal and reconnaissance–to take additional footage of the plant and the obstacles preventing the deployment of more machines. The bots have audio and video feeds as well as chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive detection kits.

Powerful aftershocks shook Tokyo and northeast Japan again on Monday and Tuesday, temporarily cutting power to the plant, but cooling operations are continuing.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Nuclear and Industry Safety Agency raised the severity of the crisis to 7, the highest on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES).

The Fukushima crisis had been ranked at 5 on the INES, the same level as the Three Mile Island accident. A rank of 7, or "major accident," involves a "major release of radioactive material with widespread health and environmental effects," according to an INES pamphlet.

Tepco says there are some 900 workers at the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini plants tackling the crisis, but none has exceeded the annual radiation dosage limit of 250 microsieverts. About 20 workers have reached the 100-microsievert level.

Japan also expanded the 12-mile evacuation zone on Monday to include the communities of Katsurao, Namie, and Iitate, as well as parts of Kawamata and Minamisoma. The government has estimated that the radiation dose in part of Namie could exceed 300 millisieverts over a year.

It’s another sign that parts of Japan may be permanently abandoned as nuclear wastelands.

Tepco workers remotely operate heavy machinery at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

(Credit: Tepco)

TOKYO–Robots and remote-controlled heavy machinery finally got to work at the crisis-hit Fukushima nuclear plant in an effort to minimize human exposure to radiation as Japan raised the severity of the disaster from 5 to 7, putting it on par with the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe.

A month after the 9.0-magnitude March 11 earthquake, operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) deployed three remote-controlled excavators equipped with cameras to clear radioactive debris around the unit 3 reactor, according to a Tepco spokeswoman.

The unmanned machinery was donated by Shimizu and Kajima corporations.

(Credit: TEPCO)

The excavators were donated by two Japanese construction companies. Remote-operated power loaders sent to Japan by Qinetiq North America are still being evaluated before deployment to the plant.

Meanwhile, Tepco launched a Honeywell T-Hawk micro air vehicle to survey the plant from above. As seen in the video below, the MAV recorded footage of the reactors and turbine structures from about 500 feet up, showing extensive damage to the buildings from the tsunami and hydrogen blasts.

Tepco has also used two of Qinetiq’s portable Talon robots–often used for ordnance disposal and reconnaissance–to take additional footage of the plant and the obstacles preventing the deployment of more machines. The bots have audio and video feeds as well as chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive detection kits.

Powerful aftershocks shook Tokyo and northeast Japan again on Monday and Tuesday, temporarily cutting power to the plant, but cooling operations are continuing.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Nuclear and Industry Safety Agency raised the severity of the crisis to 7, the highest on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES).

The Fukushima crisis had been ranked at 5 on the INES, the same level as the Three Mile Island accident. A rank of 7, or "major accident," involves a "major release of radioactive material with widespread health and environmental effects," according to an INES pamphlet.

Tepco says there are some 900 workers at the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini plants tackling the crisis, but none has exceeded the annual radiation dosage limit of 250 microsieverts. About 20 workers have reached the 100-microsievert level.

Japan also expanded the 12-mile evacuation zone on Monday to include the communities of Katsurao, Namie, and Iitate, as well as parts of Kawamata and Minamisoma. The government has estimated that the radiation dose in part of Namie could exceed 300 millisieverts over a year.

It’s another sign that parts of Japan may be permanently abandoned as nuclear wastelands.

The US House of Representatives has passed a 2012 budget plan which aims to cut $6.2 trillion (£3.8tn) in spending by the government over the next decade.

The plan, introduced by Republican Paul Ryan, would cut healthcare and social programmes for the poor and require the elderly to pay more for their healthcare than they do currently.

The bill passed the Republican-controlled House in a 235-193 vote.

The proposal is not expected to make it through the Democratic-led Senate.

The bill, which covers the fiscal year that starts on 1 October, would transform Medicare – a programme in which the US government pays medical bills for the elderly – into a voucher system that subsidises purchases of private insurance plans.

It would also lower taxes for the wealthy, a move fiscal conservatives say will boost US economic growth.

No Democrats in the House backed the bill on Friday; four Republicans also rejected the proposal.

On Thursday, the US Congress passed a budget bill that would cut $38.5bn (£23.6bn) in government spending over the rest of the current fiscal year, to 30 September.

President Barack Obama, who in a policy speech on Wednesday called for raising taxes on the wealthy as well as changes to social programmes, signed the bill into law on Friday.

Blocking the plan

Mr Obama has vowed to block major elements of Mr Ryan’s $6.2tn spending bill, notably those dealing with healthcare costs for the elderly.

But the president said on Friday that a compromise with Republicans on spending cuts would be needed to get the necessary support in Congress to raise the US debt ceiling and avoid an economic crisis.

"I think he’s absolutely right that it’s not going to happen without some spending cuts," Mr Obama told the Associated Press news agency, referring to cuts backed by House Speaker John Boehner.

He added that the world could plunge into a new recession if the ceiling on money the US can borrow is not raised in the next few weeks, before the current debt limit of $14.3tn is reached.

Mr Obama urged immediate action, saying that the US should not get close to a deadline that would destabilise financial markets.

He said he was confident Congress would ultimately raise the limit, saying the latest lawmakers could possibly act is by early July.

But fiscal conservatives have said they will not vote to increase the debt cap without a significant move toward a long-term deficit reduction.

Fossil hints at mammal evolution

The skull is just 12 millimetres long

A team of scientists from China and the United States has described a tiny fossil creature that could be one of the ancestors of modern mammals.

The shrew-like animal would have run under the feet of dinosaurs at the start of the Jurassic period, nearly 195 million years ago.

Hadrocodium could be our distant cousin

Dr Zhe-Xi Luo

The fossil was found in Yunnan province in China and has been given the name Hadrocodium wui, meaning Fullhead.

Full is a relative term; the animal weighed only about two grams – the same as the smallest land mammal living today. Its skull was just 12mm long

It probably ate the same sorts of things as today’s shrews, said lead researcher Dr Zhe-Xi Luo of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Fossil record

He told the BBC: "This was an insectivore It has very fragile teeth, and limited by its very tiny size, it was only capable of eating small insects, small worms, and not much of anything else."

But the animal had, for its size, a significantly bigger brain than the more primitive mammals already known from the early Jurassic.

Writing in the journal Science, Dr Luo and his colleagues say they are particularly excited by the creature’s middle ear bones, which are separated from the lower jaw, a key evolutionary difference between mammals and reptiles.

The discovery of this important feature in Hadrocodium wui pushes back by another 40 million years its first appearance in the fossil record.

The researchers argue that an expanding brain in an evolving creature could force the ear bones to move apart.

The anatomy of the cranium in Hadrocodium wui suggests the animal used its newfound brain power for hearing and smelling; both areas of the brain are well-developed.

When it scurried about, the Earth’s domination by dinosaurs still had many millions of years to run.

The ancestral mammals had yet to diverge into the present-day groups – placentals, like humans, horses and whales; marsupials, like kangaroos; and monotremes, such as the duck-billed platypus.

Dr Luo said: "Hadrocodium could be our distant cousin, an early mammal that existed alongside the ancestor of living mammals.

"Or it could be our great-great grand uncle, closely related to living mammals but not in our direct lineage.

"Or Hadrocodium could be the direct ancestor of living mammals. The fossil evidence can’t distinguish between these three possibilities. But we are satisfied to know that Hadrocodium is the sister taxon (closest known relative) to all living mammals," said Dr Luo.

Siemens is unveiling a suite of new products at the American Academy of Audiology 2011 conference in Chicago this week, including what it claims is the world’s first fully waterproof (and dustproof, and shock-resistant) digital hearing aid.

Aquaris is the first truly waterproof, dustproof, and shock-resistant digital hearing aid.

(Credit: Siemens)

Called Aquaris, the aid’s housing is made of one solid piece, so the only opening is to the battery compartment, which is fitted with a membrane designed to let air in but keep water out.

Siemens lists a whole range of activities that have until now been difficult for those wearing hearing aids that can be ruined by not just water but sweat and dust: sailing, swimming, kayaking, golfing, gardening, cycling, and jogging.

Because the device can be fully submerged in water up to 3 feet deep for 30 minutes (rendering it more than merely water-resistant), shallow snorkeling should be added to the list. Whether we will ever be able to scuba dive with hearing aids remains to be seen.

Aquaris also features a non-slip, textured surface that holds the Aquaris behind the ear; a "sport clip" to further secure the device during intense activities; and a water-resistant Aquapac for added protection.

Siemens has yet to release pricing or availability details.

Sunny day with several coulds passing and gentle wind blowing.It is a day for you to enjoy the sunshine with a cup of tea and a book.If you keep a cat then it is perfect afternoon for you.

I admire your life style and you.You can work at any time as you like.You are free and not like me just sitting in the office all day long.You have a lot of friends and they all cared about you very much.You have never worried about lacking of money.You are a person always have a lot of money no matter you work or not.You can travel to different places and take photos.You can speak several kinds of languages that make your travel more interesting than ordinary people.Compared with you i am like a bird who is caged and have no hope.You are a bird have your blue sky and your experiences about life.I want to break out of the cage and breathe the outside fresh air like you.For you it is a piece of cake but for me it is just like a dream and can only be called dream.

I always think other’s lives are much more better than me.In fact i know there is someone who want to live life like me.We are admiring things that we can not get.We like moon because it is out of our reach.We like someone because we can not stay together with and live with.

Noon time easy for us to become tired.When think of your dream we would feel less sleepy.A growing season and it is a season for us to make our dreams come true.

Drifting clouds,drifting dreams.You can not cherish the clouds but you can cherish your dreams.So just cheer up and pursuit your dream.Pursuit dreams just like your are pursuiting happiness.

Dead neon: About half the lights of Tokyo’s red light district are off.

TOKYO–If there’s one sound you don’t want to hear in Tokyo these days, it’s the earthquake alarm. The two jarring chords came crashing through the cherry blossoms from a public-address speaker the other morning and sent me bounding into the street in my pajamas. The room started wobbling seconds later.

The 6.3-magnitude aftershock followed a 7.0 quake the evening before that made the skyscraper I was in feel like a ship at sea. On the 20th floor, I could sense the building sway for several minutes as it absorbed the shock waves.

I lived in Tokyo for a long time and I’m used to quakes rattling the capital. But returning after the 9.0 temblor and tsunamis that smashed northern Japan on March 11, Tokyo feels more dangerous than ever.

There have been nearly a thousand quakes in the past month, including one as I write this. Not to mention the threat from the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, where radiation leaks have led Japan to rank it on par with Chernobyl on the International Nuclear Events Scale.

Some people have left Tokyo, or even Japan altogether. Fukushima differs vastly from Chernobyl, but for every scientist who downplays the radiation danger, there seems to be another who will emphasize the unknowns in the equation and play it up. It’s hard to know whom to believe.

People are coping in different ways. The famous Japanese stoicism, born out of centuries of earthquakes, fires, and war, is evident everywhere as Tokyoites quietly go about their business, making sushi, holding elections, and playing baseball. But there’s a pronounced sobriety in the air.

When the aftershocks do come, and cell phones squawk out those warning chords, people brace themselves and then check NHK TV for the quake report. Some say the dots on the map are getting closer to the capital, and that the Big One will hit right under Tokyo Bay. The capital region is home to more than 30 million people.

Long ago, Japanese believed giant catfish underground caused quakes when they thrashed about. They would pray to the god Kashima to subdue the catfish with a magic stone.

These days, people are more practical. Walking down a backstreet in the Meguro district when an aftershock hit, I heard the sound of an acoustic guitar coming from a tiny shop selling Hawaiian shirts. Inside was a lone merchant, strumming away.

I knew the tune well–"Ue wo Muite Arukou" (aka Sukiyaki) by Kyu Sakamoto, a 1960s hit about holding one’s chin up. "It’s a song of peace," the guitarist said. He plays to pacify the earth.

Fear of the ground shaking is perhaps entirely subjective, but it didn’t help to arrive from Narita airport at night. The biggest change I saw was that many escalators had been stopped, with signs reading "setsuden" (electricity conservation).

It’s a slogan seen everywhere as Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) struggles to raise its capacity from 40 million kilowatts, down from 64.5 million kilowatts; it anticipates a 20-25 percent supply gap with summer demand. Subway corridors and shop signs are dark or half-lit. Many streetlights are out and buildings are dim. Tokyo has become a city of shadows.

The hill of Kagurazaka, an old geisha quarter that’s home to some of my favorite watering holes, seems like a tenebrous alien land. The garish lights of the Akihabara electronics district are muted. Even the great wall of neon along Kabukicho, the massive red light district by Shinjuku Station, is half-off. The sex trade is still swinging, but times seem harsh.

"A soapland pimp invited me," an American habitue told me, referring to Kabukicho’s massage parlors. "It was the first time in 25 years. You know business must be terrible if they’re soliciting gaijin (foreigners)."

The other watchword here is "jishuku" (self-restraint). Events such as concerts and welcome ceremonies for new employees have been canceled out of sympathy for victims of the disaster in northern Japan, which left nearly 30,000 dead or missing.

But as plans for annual summer festivals are shelved, people have started groaning about excessive government dourness. When Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara called on Tokyoites to refrain from the traditional spring "hanami" drinking parties under the cherry blossoms, many companies canceled official parties.

Yet that hasn’t stopped thousands of people from boozing it up under the white petals, much to the delight of sake brewers in northern Japan who fear further economic hardships if no one is spending money on alcohol for the hanami season. There’s still public division over the merits of jishuku, but there is a growing sense that self-restraint won’t help Japan get back on its feet.

And on that note, I’m off to knock back a few cups of rice wine under the cherry trees.